Augustine's Two Cities
Realities explained in The City of God
To continue this month’s exploration of Augustinian philosophy, I am going to dive into Augustine’s concept of the two cities, citing, as one would expect, from his pivotal work, The City of God. Augustine describes two cities that are interwoven with and opposed to each other and that will remain so until the day of the last judgment. These two cities symbolize a metaphysical war. Mankind further finds itself embedded amid this war in which both cities fight for each human soul. One city is led by Christ, the other by Satan. In the middle, we are stretched between these two encampments, yearning to be one with God and to become an eternal member within the city of God, but still we are surrounded by members of the earthly city, and are deeply entrenched in the battle for souls. How are we to respond to being on this middle ground? The stark reality painted by Augustine likely causes us to cower from the realities of this position and to build up suppositions to defend ourselves. We can find hope, however, in three particular things, giving us confidence to stand strong: the bastion of the Church on earth, the potential souls to be brought into the city of God, and the knowledge of an ultimate victory.
Augustine wrote The City of God as a defense of God and Christianity at a pivotal point in the church's history, after the fall of Rome, when many Christians were giving into despair over the political fallout. Augustine begins Book 1 stating:
To this earthly city belong the enemies against whom I have to defend the city of God. Many of them, indeed, being reclaimed from their ungodly error, have become sufficiently credible citizens of this city; but many are so inflamed with hatred against it, and are so ungrateful to its Redeemer for His signal benefits.1
Augustine calls out the many Christians who had turned against the Church, especially after they had seen Rome sacked and the barbarous acts that took place thereafter. Augustine specifically names the two cities and their allegiances:
Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, ‘Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.’2
These cities are united and bound by their own loves–the earthly city by love of self, and the heavenly city by love of God. The cities are opposed to each other since their two loves are in opposition, as is clear, yet they are interwoven. The earthly city is consumed by love of self and therefore cannot be open to the love of God; the city of God rejects love of self and is turned completely to God. So, how are these two cities interwoven? Augustine often employed the parable of the wheat and tares3 to explain how good could possibly co-exist with evil. In the parable, those tending the field ask the master if they should pull up the tares, the weeds, from the field. The master replies that removing the weeds might also cause the wheat to be pulled up. He advises to instead wait until the harvest and then to pull up each separately. The parable means that it is not always proper in this life for the good to be separated from the evil but instead, in God’s providence, to live amongst them, with the knowledge that God, the master, will ultimately decide who will be brought into the city of God. Augustine used this parable especially to combat the Donatists who believed that they could separate themselves from ‘the tares’, that is, the unholy, instead emphasizing that “the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.”4
But why does Augustine call these two cities, “cities”? A city implies unification and leadership. For the city of God, it is clear that the city is united by love of God, and its citizens are further united by their intent to be members of the heavenly city led by Christ. But if the earthly city is made up of those who only have a love for themselves, how can they be united? Evil can never have the same unity as goodness; evil itself is disunification. Virtue can never exclude other virtues, but vice can and usually does exclude other vices. Augustine writes of the earthly city, “This city is often divided against itself by litigations, wars, quarrels, and such victories as are either life-destroying or short-lived.”5 Can such a city ever be unified? According to Augustine the earthly city is unified by its head, the devil, through the singular goal and single-mindedness of the devil. Here we turn to St. Thomas for further explanation:
And in this way the devil is head of all the wicked. For, as is written (Job 41:25): He is king over all the children of pride. Now it belongs to a governor to lead those whom he governs to their end. But the end of the devil is the aversion of the rational creature from God; hence from the beginning he has endeavored to lead man from obeying the Divine precept. But aversion from God has the nature of an end, inasmuch as it is sought for under the appearance of liberty, according to Jer. 2:20: Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst, ‘I will not serve.’ Hence, inasmuch as some are brought to this end by sinning, they fall under the rule and government of the devil, and therefore he is called their head.6
St. Thomas identifies the devil as the head of the earthly city. The devils headship is unitive binding those who spurn God together under his governorship. Since their aversion to God is an end in the sense St. Thomas describes, those who align to that end are united.
Now understanding that there are two cities, why do I say that we are caught on a middle ground? To use Augustine’s reference to the parable of the wheat and tares again, we are sowed alongside all men and must grow with them. It is not for us to change these circumstances and we must instead wait for the master of the harvest. Our nature is mortal—we cannot achieve full membership into the heavenly city until we enter eternal life and we cannot be separated entirely from the earthly city in this life. In Humanum Genus, St. Leo explains our placement on this middle ground correctly, beginning with the fall: “The race of man, after its miserable fall, ‘through the envy of the devil’, from God the Creator and giver of heavenly gifts, separated into two diverse and opposite parts, of which the one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue, the other for those things which are contrary to virtue and to truth.”7 St. Leo intentionally uses Augustine’s framework of two cities here, drawing the separation between one part that contends for truth and virtue and the other part which contends against it. Our position on the middle ground should not cause us to be apathetic, however, and we should instead align our action to our aim as members of the heavenly city—to contend for truth and virtue. As we know, even in our mortality, we are not meant to be bystanders or to treat our time on earth as a waystop on our journey.
We are not alone on the middle ground, the Catholic Church provides a bastion for us here. According to Augustine our membership within the Church is essential since it stands, in a way, as the pilgrim city of God on earth.8 Surrounded by the distractions of the enemy, the Church provides a buttress against the earthly city’s attacks. St. John Henry Newman writes, “the Catholic Church, has been set up by Divine Mercy, as a present, visible antagonist, and the only possible antagonist, to sight and sense.” If we are to be members of the city of God it must be through the Church. Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Qui Pluribus, quotes St. Jerome in saying, "Whoever does not gather with this Church, scatters."9 Of course, St. Jerome is building on Christ’s words in the Gospel of Matthew: “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”10 The implication and reality is that the most effective way to gain membership within the city of God is through the Church and that membership to the city of God outside of the Church is extremely difficult, if not impossible. How does this all impact our position? If our ultimate aim is to be united with Christ as a member of the heavenly city, our first step should be to unite in obedience with His Church on earth.
For those not part of the Church, the phrase “whoever does not gather with this Church, scatters” is surely stark and frightening. This should not be the case. Though the two cities are entrenched and opposed, the battle for souls is always ongoing. Therefore we should not consider souls outside of the city of God as ultimately lost. In the first letter of John, it is said, “He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.”11 The souls of the whole world are available to be redeemed and brought into membership of the city of God. Again, here is action for us to take! St. Thomas affirms this potential stating:
“We must therefore consider the members of the mystical body not only as they are in act, but as they are in potentiality. Nevertheless, some are in potentiality who will never be reduced to act, and some are reduced at some time to act; and this according to the triple class, of which the first is by faith, the second by the charity of this life, the third by the fruition of the life to come.”12
So our position on the middle ground is not without purpose, we are asked to bring potential members of the city of God into union with the heavenly city. We, as members of the Church, are ordained with the duty, like the Church, to act as conduit for souls.
The last aspect that I will touch on, which should give us confidence, is perhaps the most important. This is the knowledge of Christ’s ultimate victory. We know that in the cosmic war, the heavenly city is triumphant over the earthly city. We can find peace in this knowledge, yet it does not ultimately change the action we must take to be united to the city of God.13 As temporal creatures, it would be prideful for us to try and gauge the “status” of the eternal war between the two cities, but we can rest in peace, knowing that Christ is triumphant, and we should let that peace kindle a fire in our hearts to yearn to be fully united to Him.
“You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
The City of God, Book I, Chapter I
The City of God, Book XIV, Chapter 28
Matthew 13:24-30
Augustine, Letter 76. Citing Matthew 24:12-13
The City of God, Book XV, Chapter 4
Aquinas, ST III. Q8. A7.
Humanum Genus, Par 1.
This concept is supported by St. Leo in Humanum Genus, and Augustine throughout The City of God, for example in Book XIII, Chapter 16 and Book XX, Chapter 5.
Qui Pluribus, Par 11.
Matthew 12:30
1 John 2:2
Aquinas, ST III. Q3. A8
I find that Fr. Thomas Crean’s summarization in a lecture on Augustine’s two cities captures this idea well: “There are perhaps dangers in spending much time on such a subject [the two cities], in particular the danger that in the midst of exalted thoughts we may lose sight of what matters most for our salvation, namely, the daily performance of our duties as humble foot-soldiers of Christ. Yet I believe that to reflect sometimes on the greatness of the combat in which we are engaged can inspire us afterwards to return to our daily duties with renewed confidence and ardour.”